Susan (not her real name) has consulted the Blog Clinic about a problem with Council Tax
Hi Last year my tenants were in arrears of rent and weren’t responding. Eventually in July 2010 they turned up at my Agent’s with the keys expecting to get their deposit back. They didn’t because they’d left the house in a mess and owed rent. (I have since got a CCJ against them) In the meantime I had to refurb the house.
The local authority allows 6 months Council tax exemption on empty property but only allowed me 5 months because they said that the tenants had given them a date in June 2010 that they had left the property. Because the keys weren’t returned until July this was the date that my agent notifed to the Council that the property was vacant (we didn’t know they had apparently left in June because there was still furniture in the property which could be seen through the windows so we had no reason to believe they had gone).
The Council is insisting the exemption time starts from when the tenants notifed them not when our agent notified them. I am arguing that we did not get possession of the property until the keys were returned and indeed if they had not been returned the only way we could have got possession was via a Court order. Consequently my argument is that until the tenants returned the keys, they still had possession of the property no matter what they had told the Council. Am I right?
Are there any local authority people reading who would be able to answer this question?
Why would they have told the council anything?
Presumably because they were claiming Housing Benefit.
I had exactly the same problem. They just moved out and because they started getting benefits paid for the new place mine was stopped. Yet they still had my keys and boxes in the flat. I pointed out to the council that it was was irrelevant where they were living now. Like your tenants, until they give their months notice they are in a legal contract with you and rent is due and bills the tenants responsibility. I gave the council a date for the tenancy end, which was 1 month from when I learned they had moved out (I was willing to except this as the months notice in the absence of any formal notice). It took a while but I got the council bill reduced to £0 for the period up until the date I gave them I also chased benefits (who were paying me LHA directly) for the one month rent due, which I got. It took a lot of letters and emails and forwarding of paperwork but it was nearly £1000 so worth the effort which paid off.
You have a legal contract with those tenants and they are responsible for rent and bills until the date that legal contract ended. They can’t just casually decide when the contract ends. The could be living in Timbuktu for all you care but the financial commitments until the end of the contract still apply.
Thank you both for your comments. Yes Luise you are quite right, tenants cannot just end their liability without giving proper notice, and they have to give you vacant possession.
It would be nice if someone from a Local Authority could give a view on this.
The Council are now taking court action to try to recover what they say I owe based on the date they sya the tenants informed them they were moving out and not based on the date that the tenants actually moved out and handed over the keys!! Have decided to defend the case and not give in but no doubt the Council will win as the opinion seems to be that all landlords are rich and exploit poor tenants!
That’s outrageous! And at a time when the government are running the ‘Start-up Britain’ campaign encouraging ordinary people to engage in this kind of private enterprise. Only to be bullied by powerful local authorities (and they are very good at bullying). I’m glad your not giving in.
Good luck and keep us posted on how you get on. I’m sure if your tenenacy agreement and everything was in order you will win. Best of luck!
Opps! just to correct what I said above. The government are not running the start-up campaign but supporting it.